Amy Childs: I work hard to look good

I love looking good, having good skin and feeling healthy inside as well.

Amy Childs

We joined the Essex babe at Royal ­Connaught Park in Bushey, Hertfordshire, as she took us through the moves that keep her enviable curves in trim.

The 22-year-old is in her best-ever shape thanks to her second fitness DVD Amy Childs – Fit In 30 Days Disc 2, plus her training for the London Marathon, which she completed last Sunday in five hours and 47 minutes.

Amy said: “Running took over my life. ­ Running is not natural to me. My trainer Paul, from Elite Commando Fitness, helped me. I couldn’t do it on my own.

“I’ve not been having much drink. By the time the marathon came round I was like ‘God, I need an alcoholic drink!’ And I always carry Jelly ­Babies with me on a workout to give me energy and get me through it.”

Aside from her intensive marathon prep, Amy trains three times a week, doing spin classes and her DVD. And she reckons running has kept her from getting “too skinny”.

“People have said I’ve lost weight but I think that’s normal when you’re running so much and I’m still a size 8 to 10,” she said.

“But I’ve also built lots of muscle.

“When I did the first DVD people said ‘Amy you look too skinny’. I was working out too much.

“If I’d lost any more weight I would have looked ill. Now I’m confident and feel good about myself. That’s the main thing.

“I love looking good, having good skin and feeling healthy inside as well.”

She added: “There’s nothing I would change. Is that really bad? Every girl has days when they don’t feel confident but I work hard to try to look good and not feel like that.”

Amy’s glamorous looks are part of her brand, which she is working hard to build up.

As well as two fitness DVDs, a salon, two boutiques and a beauty range including false eyelashes and fake tan, she has a clothing range stocked on amychildsofficial.co.uk/">amychildsofficial.co.uk as well as in Lipsy, Next and BANK.

Amy said: “I’m really working on the Amy Childs brand. I just can’t believe it, you know, I’m just a normal girl from Brentwood. I still pinch myself. But I’m a businesswoman.

“I am ditzy but I have an intellectual side. I went to private school and I love reading. I was good at debates and was a role model at school.

“I am a sensible girl. People think I go out and get drunk at Mahiki but I stay in and read and watch the news every morning.”

Amy has been careful with her cash (estimates of her worth go as high as £10million, which Amy says is “a bit extreme”).

Apart from ­property, the only thing she has splashed out on is a white Range Rover.

She said: “I have made very good money for a 22-year-old. I have three houses. All my money is in my brand, the salon, the collection.

My ­parents keep me sensible because otherwise I would be going out buying new cars all the time. I’m proud of everything I have done. I work hard seven days a week and I’m enjoying it.”

Amy’s boyfriend, former Take Me Out ­contestant Dave Peters, also ran the marathon. They first got chatting on Twitter and have been together for a year.

She said: “I was a single girl and all of a sudden Dave came along. He’s brilliant.

“He texted me last week and said ‘do you know it’s actually a year since I met you and first spoke to you on Twitter?’

“I’d never remember that but he’s lovely, so ­romantic. We hardly ever argue and just enjoy each other’s company.”

But Amy would never leave her home in ­Brentwood – even for love.

She said: “Dave is from Ascot and we go and visit his family there and he comes over to my house a few times a week.

“When I met Dave I said ‘Dave, I love Essex so much, it’s my life. I cannot move’.